Thanks Amy for reminding me that today is...

Can't Wait!

Rise and Shout

This Saturday was a day to remember for the Martinez family, and for Cougar fans around the world. I'm not gonna lie, I went into the game a little nervous. We had won all our games so far, but let's be honest, they weren't that impressive. But, I put on my cougar blue and sunglasses and headed out into the football-perfect day.

And, it was a perfect day.

There was a slight predicament when we found two extremely tall (I realize that almost everyone is tall to me, but these girls were extremely tall) twins with HUGE red hair in our seats. Think about a combination of Ron Weasley, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Hagrid. That's what was sitting in our seats. I kindly informed them that they were in our seats, but they didn't move. I decided that I would give them a little bit because not everyone from our group was there yet. But, within a few minutes the rest of our group showed up and I took them on. I not only took them on, I defeated the redhead monsters. They didn't even know what had hit them. It was a great moment for me, I feel like I really gained a lot of respect, both from myself and from all bystanders.

But, back to the perfect day.

Let's just say the Bruins didn't leave Provo very happy that day. From our second row seats (in the south endzone) we witnessed 5 perfectly beautiful touchdowns. Those were only 5 of the 8 Cougar touchdowns. Guess how many touchdowns UCLA made? ZERO!!!! Guess how many points UCLA got? ZERO!!!!

We cheered until our lungs hurt, high fived until our hands hurt, stomped until our feet hurt. It really was a perfect day, and I'm so glad we got to spend it in a stadium full of 64,000 crazy and excited fans.

go cougs!

The grass is always greener...

I have the "grass is always greener on the other side" syndrome. For all my life I've been saying, "I'll really be happy and have the great life when I'm in high school," then a couple years later, "I'll be happy when I can finally drive," then,"I'll be happy when I'm in college and on my own," and then, "I'll be happy when I'm married and done with school," and now, "I'll finally be happy when I have my own cute little kids and I get to stay at home with them all day." It's not that I'm always unhappy, I'm just always looking for the next great thing that will bring me happiness instead of living in the moment. I also have this problem that I think everyone else has a glamorous, lovely, and stable life while I am barely keeping my head above the water.

Take today for example. I had to drive out to another school this afternoon for an ESL class I'm taking (on a side note- teachers should not be required to take a class from 4-7:00 every Thursday night that also gives a ton of pointless homework.) It was a really cute, brand new, super nice school. As I drove up I thought, "I bet the faculty here always get along and never have any problems. I bet they don't have parents calling all the time and demanding that their son or daughter needs to be in the advanced math class. I bet the teachers here get all of their work done at school and enjoy a lovely night at home relaxing instead of grading papers and planning lessons. I bet there are only 15 kids per class at this school, and I'm sure the students are very polite and sweet, and they always listen when their teacher is talking. I'm sure there is no pressure on the teachers here to perform well on end-of-year testing. I bet they don't ever have stressful faculty meetings, and they never have new math or reading adoptions to get used to. And, I'm positive they don't have to do DMI training."

Not joking, that really all went through my head, and in only about 20 seconds. Luckily, after those 20 seconds I decided to take a step back. Maybe it was a nice school, and maybe there are some things there that are better/easier than Canyon Crest. But, I'm sure this school also has its challenges. I bet some of the teachers at this school would pull up to C.C. and create their own list of "I bets." My point is, it does absolutely no good for me to dream about how wonderful it is to teach at fancy, beautiful, new school because I am at Canyon Crest, and I love it. I need to remind myself every time the going gets tough that I do love it and I am happy where I am right now. I hate to think that I spend any time at all wishing I was doing something else because really all we have is this moment to enjoy. So, here is my resolution to you, my dear blog, that I am going to find something to appreciate every day. That I am going to love where I am and what I'm doing right now, because possibly I will never get the chance to do this again.

On a spiritual note, here is a fabulous talk from last fall's General Conference. Apparently I didn't study it well enough to apply it to all aspects of my life, but tonight I have greater resolve to do so.

My World is Shrinking

About 6 months ago I posted about my hilarious and lovable aerobics instructor who could be a body double for Suzanne Somers. I haven't been to that class in a while because A. my Saturdays became really busy B. Lisa moved away and I couldn't go by myself because I needed to know at least one person wasn't making fun of me in their mind the whole time (or maybe she was too...not sure) and C. my gym membership expired and I decided I could just run outside during the summer.
Well, today I'm doing parent teacher conferences and in walks Suzanne Somers aka my favorite aerobics teacher. She's the mother of one of my students!!!! It was so funny to see her again. And, since I was so embarrassed about my skills in the class and my poor attendance I didn't bring it up. But, Lis and I plan on starting that class again soon (whenever I can afford a gym membership again) and then I'll be seeing her every Saturday morning. Will that be awkward??

New Layout

My cute hubby spent all day helping me with my blog. I know what you're thinking- you spent all day and this is all it looks like? We had some complications and it's still a work in progress. But, I'm grateful for a super fabulous, multi-talented husband that is also a little bit nerdy. Thanks Bry!

How minty are you?

It is no secret that my financial skills are lacking. In fact, the class I regret not taking the most at BYU was personal finance. It's not that I've ever had huge problems with money, I just don't keep track of what I have and how I'm spending it very well. It just seems like such a pain and I have no motivation. But, since I'm a team now, I feel a little more pressure to get on the ball and be more organized about things.

Step on the scene my dear friend/accountant extraordinaire Lisa. She told me about mint.com. It's a FREE site that is very safe. You put in all of your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, investments, etc. Then, they track it all for you. You can create a budget, and they create a nifty little graph that tells you how close you are to reaching your budget each month. It categorizes all of your expenses and shows you how close you are to your budget in each of those categories. The site also tells you how much you are worth, and let's just say it would not be a great idea to rob the Martinez family right now. It is fabulous, and I am finally motivated and excited about taking care of my finances.

So, thank you Lisa!!! You can now put on your resume that you saved a marriage :)

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

You probably haven't read this book since you were in fourth grade, but it's a cute one by Judy Blume. I'm reading it to my kids and we are loving it. So, in honor of this fabulous title, I have a few anecdotes for you from the life of a real fourth grade nothing.

8/25/08
I'm teaching our vocabulary words for the week. One of the words is suspicious. My sentence for suspicious is "I would be very suspicious if a cookie was left on my desk." A couple hours later at lunch, I receive 2 cookies from anonymous fourth grade donors. (ps- I totally knew who the cookies were from)

8/27/08
I'm on recess duty and all of a sudden a student runs down the hill screaming "There's a huge poisonous rattlesnake on the playground!!!!" I was (of course) completely freaked out and created a huge perimeter in which no one was allowed to go. Luckily my classroom aide came to my rescue and took care of the beast. Turns out the gardner snake was harmless, but it was still very creepy and I'm not looking forward to my next recess duty.

8/28/08
A girl comes to school and tells me, "I have a dress just like yours. I like to wear it when I'm riding around in my mom's convertible with the top down. It's also fun to wear when we're driving in my dad's lamborghini. People stop us all the time and want to take pictures of our car. They also stop us when we drive the ferrari and the viper, but mostly they stop us when we drive the lamborghini." My mouth pretty much dropped down to my knees. Let's just say I'm expecting a great Christmas present from that family :)

9/2/08
We start out the year with a unit on respect and one type of respect we discuss is respect for country. We talk about how even if you don't like the president or you didn't vote for him, you should still show respect because he is our leader. Here is part of our conversation:
Kelli: "If Barack Obama is elected, I will not respect him."
me: "Why not?"
Kelli: "Because I just do not like him"
(I've never met a fourth grader that cared so much about politics)
Skyler: "Should we respect Bill Clinton?"
me: "Yes, he was the leader that we elected"
Skyler: "Didn't he lie?"
me: "Well, yes he did lie to the country, which made it difficult for us to show him respect."
Skyler: "What did he lie about?"
me: "umm.... ask your parents about it"

So, there you have it. My life in a nutshell.